University Of Exeter Press Exeter Studies in Film History / Cinema on the Front Line / Broché / 2026

Cinema on the Front Line offers the first comprehensive history and analysis of how British soldiers engaged with and were engaged by the medium of cinema during World War I. Utilizing extensive archival records and soldier testimony, the book offers a unique perspective on the cultural value and importance of cinema to the army during wartime.

Winner of the Theatre Library Association’s 2021 Richard Wall Memorial Award for an exemplary work in the field of recorded performance.

Cinema on the Front Line offers the first comprehensive history and analysis of how the medium of cinema intersected with the lives of British soldiers during the First World War. Documenting the wartime use of cinema, from domestic recruitment drives to makeshift theatrical venues established on the front line, and then in convalescent hospitals and camps, this book provides evidence of the previously unacknowledged importance of the medium as recreational support and entertainment for soldiers living through the trauma of conflict.

Presenting the fruits of his archival research, the author makes extensive use of war diaries and other military records to foreground the voices and perspectives of British soldiers themselves. Including discussion of over 70 films, this book will interest specialists in British film history, propaganda film, exhibition and audience studies, as well as historians and students of the First World War, propaganda and the military.